CES 2012: The Rise of the Ultrabook

WEBINAR:On-Demand

Ultrabooks, not tablet computers, will be the talk of the 2012 Consumer Electronics Show this week, according to industry analysts. Ultrabook pricing could curb early enthusiasm.

If one of themes of the 2011 Consumer Electronics Show was the rise of Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) Android tablets, this year's CES event will be the year the Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) Windows laptop market is revitalized with so-called ultrabooks.

Ultrabooks are not supercomputers packed in small frames, or super electronic reading devices. They're simply less expensive, Windows versions of MacBook Air machines that use flash storage and boot up in 10 seconds or less. At between $700 and $1,000 apiece, and between 3 and 5 pounds, ultrabooks are this year's hot-ticket item at CES.

"The prices, mostly in the $1,000 price range, are much more reasonable than they used to be for comparable PCs, but they're still not affordable for every PC buyer. In a September survey of 5,130 U.S. online consumers, we found that 22 percent of PC shoppers said they'd be interested in buying an ultrabook at the current prices. Not bad, but an indication that ultrabooks will appeal only to a certain segment of consumers, and won't replace every laptop on the shelves."

PC makers know this, which is why they are going for differentiation.

"If ultrabooks are only thin, light Mac Air knockoffs, they won't be very successful," industry analyst Jack Gold told eWEEK. "They need to be more. So yes, thin and light are important. And price is always an issue current devices are probably $700 to $900, so that is not cheap compared to $300-$500 mainstream notebooks."

Gold sees ultrabooks evolving over the next couple years. He expects the machines will:

feature more security controls for safer document sharing and Web surfing; and

include enhanced media creation and consumption capability.

Of course, the arrival of Microsoft's Windows 8 platform, a touch-oriented interface for tablets, will lead to touch-enabled ultrabooks and convertible tablet/notebook form factors with flip-over covers and extended slide-out screens.

"While a number of first-gen ultrabooks are going to be announced at CES, the real ultrabooks will emerge later this year with the new chips, new OS, and new user functionality and performance. That is when the true value of the new ultrabook devices will be judged," he said.